Crossbencher

A crossbencher is an independent or minor party member of some legislatures, such as the British House of Lords and the Parliament of Australia. They take their name from the crossbenches, between and perpendicular to the government and opposition benches, where crossbenchers sit in the chamber.

United Kingdom

Crossbench members of the British House of Lords are not aligned to any particular party.[1] Until 2009, these included the Law Lords appointed under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876. In addition, former Speakers of the House of Commons (such as Lord Martin of Springburn and Baroness Boothroyd) and former Lord Speakers of the House of Lords (such as Baroness Hayman and Baroness D'Souza), who by convention are not aligned with any party, also sit as crossbenchers. There are also some non-affiliated members of the House of Lords who are not part of the crossbencher group; this includes some officers, such as the Lord Speaker, and others who are associated with a party but have had the whip withdrawn. Although non-affiliated members, and members of small parties, sometimes physically sit on the crossbenches, they are not members of the crossbench parliamentary group.

An "increasing number" of crossbenchers have been created peers for non-political reasons.[2] Since its establishment in May 2000, the House of Lords Appointments Commission has nominated a total of 67 non-party-political life peers who joined the House of Lords as crossbenchers.[3]

There are currently 178 crossbenchers, composing approximately 23% of the sitting members in the House of Lords and making them the third largest parliamentary group after the Conservative and Labour parties.[4] From April 2007 to 2009, the number of crossbenchers was higher than the number of Conservatives in the Lords for the first time.[5]

Although the Lords Spiritual (archbishops and senior bishops of the Church of England) also have no party affiliation, they are not considered crossbenchers and do not sit on the crossbenches, their seats being on the Government side of the Lords Chamber.[2]

Parties supporting a minority government in a confidence and supply agreement in the House of Commons, such as the Democratic Unionist Party in the 2017-2019 Parliament, are not considered crossbenchers. Instead, along with all other non-governing parties, they are considered part of the opposition and sit on the opposition benches.

Convenor

The crossbenchers do not take a collective position on issues, and so have no whips; however, they do elect from among themselves a convenor for administrative purposes, and to keep them up to date with the business of the House.[1] The current convenor is The Lord Judge, who took the office in October 2019.[6] While convenors are not part of the "usual channels" (i.e. the party whips who decide the business of the House), they have been included in their discussions in recent years.[7]

The following have served as Convenor of the Crossbenchers:[8]

Australia
The Australian Senate. Crossbenchers sit in the seats between the two sides.

The term refers to both independent and minor party members in the Federal Parliament of Australia as well as the Parliaments of the Australian states and territories.[11] Unlike the United Kingdom, in Australia the term is applied to those parties and independents in both the lower and upper houses of parliament, who sit on the crossbench.[12]

The last few federal elections have seen an increase in the size and power of the crossbench in both houses of Parliament. The Australian Parliament as elected at the 2010 election was the first hung parliament in the House of Representatives since the election of 1940, with the Australian Labor Party and the Coalition winning 72 seats each of 150 total. Six crossbenchers held the balance of power: Greens MP Adam Bandt and Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor declared their support for Labor on confidence and supply, Independent MP Bob Katter and National Party of Western Australia MP Tony Crook declared their support for the Coalition on confidence and supply. The resulting 76–74 margin entitled Labor to form a minority government.

The Australian Senate, which uses the Single Transferable Vote form of proportional representation to elect its 76-seat chamber, frequently has a number of Senators on the crossbench that the governing party has to negotiate with to get legislation passed. The 2 July 2016 double dissolution election, for example resulted in a chamber with the Liberal/National Coalition having 30 seats, the Australian Labor Party with 26 seats, the Greens with 9 seats, One Nation with 4 seats and the Nick Xenophon Team with 3 seats. The other 4 seats were each won by Derryn Hinch, the Liberal Democratic Party, Family First, and Jacqui Lambie. The number of crossbenchers increased by two to a record 20 (all but the ones of the LPA/NPA coalition and the ALP: 9+4+3+4). The Liberal/National Coalition government required at least nine additional votes to reach a Senate majority.[13][14]

Generally speaking, Senators broadly aligned with the government (such as those affiliated with the Australian Conservatives, One Nation, the Liberal Democratic Party, and Derryn Hinch) sit on the same side of the crossbench as the government benches, while those more aligned with the opposition, such as the Greens, sit on the same side of the crossbench as the opposition benches.[15] This tends not to be the case in the House of Representatives, both due to the different electoral system, which means fewer crossbenchers are elected, and the fact that the official government and opposition frontbenches extend across the inner rim of the entire hemicycle.[16]

New Zealand

In the New Zealand House of Representatives, MPs from parties that are not openly aligned with either the government or the official opposition (such as those belonging to New Zealand First between 2011 until 2017) are sometimes referred to as crossbenchers[17][18] – however those that support the government in confidence and supply agreements are regarded as part of the government and sit on the government benches, often receiving official roles as ministers outside the cabinet or as parliamentary under-secretaries. From 2008 to 2017, ACT New Zealand, Māori Party and United Future MPs supported the minority National Party government. These MPs were not considered to be crossbenchers or part of the opposition, as they were represented within the government.

Similar concepts in Canada
Main article: Third party (Canada)
The Senate of Canada

The term "crossbencher" is generally not used for the federal Parliament of Canada or any of the provincial or territorial legislatures. Instead, any party that is not the governing party is an "opposition party", with the largest of these designated the official opposition (and their leader is designated Leader of the Opposition). Opposition parties other than the official opposition are typically called third parties, a term derived from American politics. Third parties and independents sit on the opposition side of the chamber, even if they are supporting a minority government, unless they are part of a coalition government.

Beginning in 2016, multiple non-partisan caucuses which fulfill a similar purpose as crossbenchers have been formed in the Senate of Canada.[19][20] The first, the Independent Senators Group (ISG), was created partly as a response to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's decision to appoint more non-partisan Senators.[21] Similar to crossbenchers in the UK, the ISG chooses its own leader and does not use a whipping system. In December 2016, the Senate began to officially recognise the ISG and provide it with funding.[22] Two additional groups were established in 2019: the Canadian Senators Group (which primarily focuses on regional issues) and the Progressive Senate Group (formed by members of the defunct Senate Liberal Caucus).

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See also

References
  1. "Cross benches". BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics |. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  2. "A Brief History of the Crossbench Peers". Crossbenchpeers.org.uk. Archived from the original on 18 October 2010.
  3. House of Lords Appointments Commission Archived 18 April 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  4. "Lords by party, type of peerage and gender". UK Parliament. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  5. "Days of Conservative domination in the Lords come to an end". The Times. 16 April 2007.
  6. "Lord Judge". UK Parliament. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  7. "Constitutional renewal starts at home – Lords of the Blog". Lordsoftheblog.net. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 16 May 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2018.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. "Lord Hope of Craighead". UK Parliament. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  10. "Lord Judge". UK Parliament. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  11. "Australian federal election 2016: the crossbenchers likely to swing a hung Parliament". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 July 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  12. "Election 2016: Where do the crossbenchers stand on the major issues?". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2017.
  13. "Federal Election 2016: Senate Results". Australia Votes. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 3 July 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  14. "Senate photo finishes". Blogs.crikey.com.au. 12 July 2016. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
  15. "Senate Seating Plan". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  16. "House of Representatives Seating plan". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 7 May 2017.
  17. "New Zealand prepares to vote after 'strangest, dirtiest' election campaign". The Guardian. 18 September 2014.
  18. "John Armstrong: Winston becoming NZ's Churchill". The New Zealand Herald. 8 August 2015.
  19. "6 senators to form 'independent, non-partisan' working group". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  20. Canada, Senate of. "Senate of Canada – Special Senate Committee on Senate Modernization". Senate of Canada. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  21. "Justin Trudeau names nine non-partisan senators – Macleans.ca". Maclean's. 27 October 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  22. "Independent Senators to get seats on committees, now group wants $542,428–$722,000 for staff – The Hill Times". Hilltimes.com. 12 December 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
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